# OpenAI Tunnel Client

> Apache customer daemon for Secure MCP Tunnel to ChatGPT/Codex

**Category:** AI Agents  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://github.com/openai/tunnel-client  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/openai/tunnel-client  
**Added:** 2026-09-25

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## The Hook

tunnel-client is OpenAI’s customer-run daemon for Secure MCP Tunnel: expose a private/localhost MCP server to ChatGPT, Codex, Responses API, and AgentKit without putting that MCP on the public internet.

## What's Good

Apache-2.0 (openai/tunnel-client). Operator surfaces (/healthz, /readyz, /metrics, /ui), onboarding docs in-tree, active 2026-09 pushes. Use when security will not allow inbound firewall holes for MCP.

## The Catch

Vs mcp-remote / SuperGateway: this is OpenAI’s hosted-tunnel customer agent for OpenAI products, not a generic stdio↔SSE bridge. Usefulness depends on OpenAI Secure MCP Tunnel availability/account entitlements — the client alone does not replace a self-host MCP gateway.

## Verdict

Apache OpenAI tunnel client when private MCP must reach ChatGPT/Codex without a public endpoint — skip if you are not on that OpenAI path.